12 Years a Slave (2013) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error 12 Years a Slave ( 2013 ) R | Watch Now From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup , a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.

Director: John Ridley (screenplay), Solomon Northup (based on "Twelve Years a Slave" by) Stars: Take the quiz Related News a list of 43 titles created 10 Nov 2013 a list of 33 titles created 13 Jan 2015 a list of 31 titles created 25 May 2015 a list of 31 titles created 04 Jun 2015 a list of 49 titles created 15 Oct 2015 Title: 12 Years a Slave (2013) 8.1/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 3 Oscars. Another 234 wins & 312 nominations. See more awards » Videos The adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous hotel from the fictional Republic of Zubrowka between the first and second World Wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. Director: Wes Anderson A determined woman works with a hardened boxing trainer to become a professional.

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Facing cruelty personified by a malevolent slave owner, as well as unexpected kindnesses, Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon's chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist will forever alter his life. Written by Fox Searchlight The extraordinary true story of Solomon Northup Genres: Rated R for violence/cruelty, some nudity and brief sexuality | See all certifications » Parents Guide: 8 November 2013 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Twelve Years a Slave See more » Filming Locations: $923,715 (USA) (18 October 2013) Gross: Did You Know? Trivia Four of the cast also appear in Arnold Schwarzenegger films. J.D Evermore (Chapin) and Douglas M. Griffin (Sailor) both appeared in 'Maggie' (2015), with Griffin also having a turn in 'Terminator Genisys' (2015).

Scott McNairy (Brown) is appearing in '478' (2016), and Taran Killam (Hamilton) is directing and appearing in 'Why We're Killing Gunther (2017). In addition, Garrett Dillahunt (Armsby) played Cromartie in the spin off 'Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles' (2008). See more » Goofs Platt's fiddling for the forced merriment, does not synchronize with the fiddle sound. See more » Quotes (New Jersey) – See all my reviews Read More @ The Awards Circuit ( One of the things that have been thrown around for months now is the notion that awards season voting bodies won't respond to it because it's too "difficult" to sit through. Let's define difficult, shall we? Is it difficult to see the first openly gay politician gunned down by his closeted colleague? Is it difficult to see a reformed convict put to death by our country for his crimes? Is it difficult to see a mother choose which one of her children dies during the Holocaust? I'd argue that these answers add up to a resounding yes.

Yet, no one threw those phrases of "too difficult" around. I've watched hundreds of films throughout my short 29-year history and I've seen some difficult cinema. Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List" can make anyone quiver in shame as it shows the despicable reality of the Holocaust. Paul Greengrass' "United 93", which is almost an emotional biopic of America's darkest hour, makes me want to crawl up into a ball and cry. And finally, Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ", one of the highest grossing films of all-time, shows the labor of our sins fleshed out into the beaten skin of an honest man. And still, no one threw these hyperbolic terms out saying, "it's too hard watch." Is it because this is an American tragedy, done by Americans? Is it the guilt of someone's ancestors manifesting it in your tear ducts? I can't answer that. Only the person who says it can. The structure of this country is built on the backs and blood of slaves. But slavery didn't just exist in America, it was everywhere.

It was horrifying what occurred for over 200 years and believe it or not, still exists in some parts of the world TODAY. Now when approaching the powerful film by McQueen and distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures, there is a resounding honesty that McQueen and screenwriter John Ridley inhabit. There are no tricks or gimmicks, no cheap takes on a side story or character that is put there for time filling or a life-lesson for Solomon to learn. Everything is genuine. Is the film heartbreaking? Oh my God yes. Did I cry for several minutes after the screening? Embarrassingly so. I was enamored the entire time, head to toe, moment to moment. I have long admired the talent that's been evident in the works of Chiwetel Ejiofor. I've known he was capable of what he has accomplished as Solomon Northup and he hits it out of the park. He has the urgency, worry, and drive to get home to his family and executes every emotion flawlessly even when all hope seems to be lost. Where he shines incredibly are the small nuances that he takes as the story slows down, you notice aspects of Solomon that make him even more believable.

As Edwin Epps, Solomon's last owner, Michael Fassbender digs down deep into some evil territory. Acts as the "Amon Goeth" of our tale, he is exactly what you'd expect a person who believes this should be a way of life to behave. He's vile and strikes fear into not only the people he interacts with but with the viewers who watch. As Mrs. Epps, Sarah Paulson is just as wretched. Abusive, conniving, entitled, and I loved every second of her. Mark my words; Lupita Nyong'o is the emotional epicenter of the entire film. The heartache, tears, and anger that will grow inside during the feature will have our beautiful "Patsey" at the core. She is the great find of our film year and will surely go on to more dynamic and passionate projects in the future. You're watching the birth of a star. Hans Zimmer puts forth a very pronounced score, enriched with all the subtle ticks that strike the chords of tone. One thing that cannot be denied is the exquisite camera work of Sean Bobbit.

Weaving through the parts of boat and then through the grassroots of a cotton field, he puts himself in the leagues of Roger Deakins and Seamus McGarvey as one of the most innovative and exciting DP's in the business. Especially following his work in "The Place Beyond the Pines" earlier this year. Simply marvelous. Oscar chances, since I know many of you are wondering. Put the Oscar's in my hands, you have a dozen nominations reap for the taking. Best Picture, Director, Lead Actor, Supporting Actor, dual Supporting Actresses, Adapted Screenplay, Production Design, Cinematography, Costume Design, Film Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Original Score. There's also a strong and rich sound scope that is present. The sounds of nature as the slaves walk or as Solomon approaches his master's house is noticed. The big question is, can it win? I haven't seen everything yet so I cannot yet if it deserves it or not. I can say, if critics and audiences can get off this "difficult" watch nonsense and accept the cinematic endeavor as a look into our own history as told from a great auteur, there's no reason it can't top the night.

I'm very aware that seeing this film along with Steve McQueen crowned by Oscar is nearly erasing 85 years of history in the Academy. Are they willing and ready to begin looking into new realms and allowing someone not necessarily in their inner circles to make a bold statement as McQueen and Ridley take in "12 Years a Slave?" I remain hopeful. 254 of 413 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Advertisement Get Slate in your inbox. There are movies to which the critical response lags far behind the emotional one. Two days after seeing 12 Years a Slave, British director Steve McQueen’s adaptation of the 1853 memoir of a free black man kidnapped into slavery, I’m still awaiting delivery of the apparatus that would permit me to analyze it. So overpowering is this film’s simple, horrible, and almost entirely true story—and so impressive the feats of acting, cinematography, historical research, and set and costume design that conspire to bring that story to us—that it’s hard to get enough distance on 12 Years a Slave to poke at its inner workings.

I want to try, though—if only because it’s that tendency to overwhelm the viewer that strikes me as this generally stunning movie’s chief flaw. Dana Stevens Dana Stevens is Slate’s movie critic. One of the first observations to make about 12 Years a Slave is that it’s lushly, paradoxically gorgeous: a beautiful film about the ugliest of subjects. McQueen got his start as an experimental video artist, and his compositions and lighting choices are often exquisitely painterly. He loves to use the contemplative insert shots—often focusing on a detail from nature—known as “ pillow shots ”: cypress trees reflected in peach-colored bayous at sunset, caterpillars crawling over cotton bolls. The early scenes, in which Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is still a free and relatively prosperous man living with his wife and two children in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., unfold in an almost gauzy glow of memory (framed by an opening scene of Solomon, now renamed “Platt,” as he works in a field of sugarcane).

After Solomon, a part-time violinist, is promised a lucrative gig by two white men who run a kind of traveling circus, he’s drugged and wakes up in a brick cell in shackles. Along with some other captured blacks—some free, some not—Solomon is transported by boat to the South, where he’s sold to a series of increasingly bad masters. First comes William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch), a pious, well-meaning hypocrite who sees no contradiction between preaching Scripture to his slaves on Sunday and forever separating a mother (Adepero Oduye) from her children. That separation happens in a starkly staged, rigorously unsentimentalized auction scene that’s one of the film’s hardest to watch, and to forget. One of Ford’s petty overseers, the loathsome Tibeats (Paul Dano, taking a little too much pleasure in his own villainy), takes a particular dislike to the initially defiant Solomon, and goads him into a fight that will result not only in Solomon’s near-fatal torture, but his sale to the cotton farmer Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender).

Advertisement If Solomon is the film’s moral center, Epps is its moral black hole, an alcoholic psycho who sometimes forces his exhausted slaves to dance for him into the wee hours of the morning. (Grand Guignol as it sounds, this horrific detail is true to Northup’s narrative.) And that’s one of the nicer things he does: In darker moods, Epps is prone to chasing the people he calls “my property” around the pigsty with a knife or whipping them till the flesh flies off their backs. His sexual obsession with his beautiful young slave Patsey (the astonishing Lupita Nyong’o) means that she is subject both to near-nightly rape and to random abuse from Epps’ jealous, neglected wife (an excellent Sarah Paulson). The long stretch of the film that takes place at Epps’ plantation contains the best examples both of McQueen’s artistry and his occasional tendency to gild the lily. In this section, he explores, with remarkable attention to behavioral nuance, a rich array of social relationships governed by the institution of slavery—not just master and slave but mistress and slave, shopkeeper and slave, and most of all, slave and slave.

The well-kept mistress of a neighboring plantation owner (Alfre Woodard) tries to convince Patsey that life as a sexual prisoner has its comparative advantages, ignoring the fact that Patsey’s owner both rapes her and makes her work harder than any man in the cotton fields. Later, Patsey and Solomon become close allies after she begs him to put an end to her misery by killing her, in a scene that’s as painful as it is sublimely acted. McQueen is particularly adept at exploring the intense yet guarded nature of relationships among the slaves, for whom friendship—not to speak of love—is a dangerous and necessarily transitory proposition. But in a climactic set piece in which Solomon is forced by a gun-wielding Epps to whip Patsey nearly to death, I sometimes felt smothered by McQueen’s insistence on wallowing in the extremes of human anguish. McQueen has been accused in the past of aestheticizing suffering, a critique which seems fairer to make of his two previous features ( Hunger and Shame ) than of this one.

Hunger, in which Michael Fassbender starves himself before our eyes as the Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands, and Shame, in which Fassbender plays a man sinking into a swamp of sex addiction, both struck me as movies with unpleasantly sadistic relationships to their audience: Let’s see how much human suffering and moral degradation you can take. When the subject matter is a historical horror on the order of slavery, McQueen’s miserablist approach would seem to make a kind of sense—but you could also argue that Solomon’s dehumanizing ordeal is powerful enough in itself to need minimal directorial underlining. And though Fassbender is electrifying as Epps—he gives a broad, kinetic, constantly menacing performance that strikes sparks off Ejiofor’s quieter, steadier one—there’s sometimes a sense that the script (by John Ridley) uses the character as an all-purpose scare machine, the red-bearded equivalent of the shark in Jaws . I was terrified of Epps, but I’m not sure I left the movie with any sense of who he was, other than the most nightmarish master imaginable. Maybe that’s all we needed to know.

None of these quibbles matters, though, by the time you get to the soul-rending last scene of 12 Years a Slave, when a stunned Solomon at last comes home to his wife and now-grown children after more than a decade of hard labor and isolation, so damaged by the years he’s lost he seems scarcely able to remember what bodily autonomy feels like. It’s the unhappiest happy ending I’ve ever seen, a moment that makes you weep not just for this one man who found his way back to freedom, but for all those men and women who never knew it in the first place. ‎12 Years a Slave (2013) directed by Steve McQueen • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd 34 This was not what I was expecting and I mean that in the best way possible. What most of us probably have gotten used to is a sensationalist or manipulative approach in 'big' films that deal with 'big' subjects. And even though 12 Years a Slave has moments where it's guilty of this as well, its overall restrained and distancing, observing tone was something that caught me off guard. Slavery is a subject that deserves the reverence McQueen has given it.

Just over a year after the Tarantino cartoon dealt with the same issues, we are now presented with a film that isn't intent on educating or enlightenment. It shows us what we know, slavery is an abhorrent and horrific… 57 It’s strange how awards can change your expectations for a film. Despite being excited to see it during its original theatrical run by the time 12 Years a Slave was winning gold statues left, right and centre I had begun to question whether this true life story of a freeman kidnapped into slavery wasn’t just another awards-baiting movie masquerading as a worthy prestige picture. However, these were unfounded fears as this is yet another unflinching and haunting character study from director Steve McQueen. Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as Solomon Northup, a free black man living with his wife and children in New York, who is drugged, abducted and sold into slavery in the South. It’s the sort of horrifying true life… 36 The story of Solomon and his 12 years of mother fucking Hell. Slogging the fuck away on a fuckin' cutting gang. A violin. Square fuckin' dancing. A chance gig. One too many libations.

Waking up to a fuckin' nightmare. A Georgia runaway. Proper clothes. A little-ole boat ride. Never show your true colors. A Boardwalk badass takes a swim. Lucky-ass Clemens. There's always a story in a flashback. A sideways asshole. A fuckin'-horrid-human-auction. Master Sherlock. Cool-as-fuck Native-Americans. A keg of nails. 2013, the year Paul Dano gets the holy-fuckin'-shit beat out of him in the two most intense films of the year. A noose. A Biblical plague. Fuckin' cotton. The Queen of the fields. The Fass and Steve McQueen should… 11 I like my better half's description of this as a movie that you can be "neither entirely for, nor entirely against" (heading off any hurt feelings, consider that the individual 'you,' directed my way—I'm really not out to pop anyone's balloon).

McQueen's bent toward art-installation aestheticizing makes for an odd fit with the slow-build emotions of the piece, which already seems at script-level to be taking a very cool and clinical approach (the better to show that this is, like, really horrific shit, I guess?). I wish I believed a lot of it; most of the time I felt like I was watching performers playing dress-up in a rigorously rehearsed, scrupulously researched simulation, not unlike the Village Restoration museum I'd… ‘12 Years a Slave’ Holds Nothing Back in Show of Suffering - The New York Times The New York Times Movies |The Blood and Tears, Not the Magnolias Search The Blood and Tears, Not the Magnolias ‘12 Years a Slave’ Holds Nothing Back in Show of Suffering 12 Years a Slave Anatomy of a Scene: '12 Years a Slave' Steve McQueen, the director of "12 Years a Slave," narrates a sequence from his film. By Mekado Murphy on Publish Date October 16, 2013. .

Watch in Times Video » embed “12 Years a Slave” isn’t the first movie about slavery in the United States — but it may be the one that finally makes it impossible for American cinema to continue to sell the ugly lies it’s been hawking for more than a century. Written by John Ridley and directed by Steve McQueen , it tells the true story of Solomon Northup, an African-American freeman who, in 1841, was snatched off the streets of Washington, and sold. It’s at once a familiar, utterly strange and deeply American story in which the period trappings long beloved by Hollywood — the paternalistic gentry with their pretty plantations, their genteel manners and all the fiddle-dee-dee rest — are the backdrop for an outrage. The story opens with Solomon ( Chiwetel Ejiofor ) already enslaved and cutting sugar cane on a plantation. A series of flashbacks shifts the story to an earlier time, when Solomon, living in New York with his wife and children, accepts a job from a pair of white men to play violin in a circus.

Soon the three are enjoying a civilized night out in Washington, sealing their camaraderie with heaping plates of food, flowing wine and the unstated conviction — if only on Solomon’s part — of a shared humanity, a fiction that evaporates when he wakes the next morning shackled and discovers that he’s been sold. Thereafter, he is passed from master to master. It’s a desperate path and a story that seizes you almost immediately with a visceral force. But Mr. McQueen keeps everything moving so fluidly and efficiently that you’re too busy worrying about Solomon, following him as he travels from auction house to plantation, to linger long in the emotions and ideas that the movie churns up. Part of this is pragmatic — Mr. McQueen wants to keep you in your seat, not force you out of the theater, sobbing — but there’s something else at work here. This is, he insists, a story about Solomon, who may represent an entire subjugated people and, by extension, the peculiar institution, as well as the American past and present. Yet this is also, emphatically, the story of one individual.

Unlike most of the enslaved people whose fate he shared for a dozen years, the real Northup was born into freedom. (His memoir’s telegraphing subtitle is “Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, From a Cotton Plantation Near the Red River, in Louisiana.”) That made him an exceptional historical witness, because even while he was inside slavery — physically, psychologically, emotionally — part of him remained intellectually and culturally at a remove, which gives his book a powerful double perspective. In the North, he experienced some of the privileges of whiteness, and while he couldn’t vote, he could enjoy an outing with his family. Even so, he was still a black man in antebellum America. Video embed Mr. McQueen is a British visual artist who made a rough transition to movie directing with his first two features, “Hunger” and “Shame,” both of which were embalmed in self-promoting visuals.

“Hunger” is the sort of art film that makes a show of just how perfectly its protagonist, the Irish dissident Bobby Sands ( Michael Fassbender ), smears his excrement on a prison wall. “Shame,” about a sex addict (Mr. Fassbender again), was little more than glossy surfaces, canned misery and preening directorial virtuosity. For “12 Years a Slave,” by contrast, Mr. McQueen has largely dispensed with the conventions of art cinema to make something close to a classical narrative; in this movie, the emphasis isn’t on visual style but on Solomon and his unmistakable desire for freedom. Continue reading the main story There’s nothing ambivalent about Solomon. Mr. Ejiofor has a round, softly inviting face, and he initially plays the character with the stunned bewilderment of a man who, even chained, can’t believe what is happening to him. Not long after he’s kidnapped, Solomon sits huddled with two other prisoners on a slaver’s boat headed south. One man insists that they should fight their crew.

A second disagrees, saying, “Survival’s not about certain death, it’s about keeping your head down.” Seated between them, Solomon shakes his head no. Days earlier he was home. “Now,” he says, “you tell me all is lost?” For him, mere survival cannot be enough. “I want to live.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story This is Solomon’s own declaration of independence, and an assertion of his humanity that sustains him. It’s also a seamlessly structured scene that turns a discussion about the choices facing enslaved people — fight, submit, live — into cinema. In large part, “12 Years a Slave” is an argument about American slavery that, in image after image, both reveals it as a system (signified in one scene by the sights and ominous, mechanical sounds of a boat water wheel) and demolishes its canards, myths and cherished symbols. There are no lovable masters here or cheerful slaves. There are also no messages, wagging fingers or final-act summations or sermons. Mr. McQueen’s method is more effective and subversive because of its primarily old-fashioned, Hollywood-style engagement.

It’s a brilliant strategy that recognizes the seductions of movies that draw you wholly into their narratives and that finds Mr. McQueen appropriating the very film language that has been historically used to perpetuate reassuring (to some) fabrications about American history.

One of the shocks of “12 Years a Slave” is that it reminds you how infrequently stories about slavery have been told on the big screen, which is why it’s easy to name exceptions, like Richard Fleischer’s demented, at times dazzling 1975 film, “Mandingo.” The greater jolt, though, is that “12 Years a Slave” isn’t about another Scarlett O’Hara, but about a man who could be one of those anonymous, bent-over black bodies hoeing fields in the opening credits of “Gone With the Wind,” a very different “story of the Old South.” Photo Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender in "12 Years a Slave." Credit Francois Duhamel/Fox Searchlight Pictures At one point in Northup’s memoir, which was published a year after “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and eight years before the start of the Civil War, he interrupts an account of his own near-lynching to comment on the man largely to blame for the noose around his neck.

“But whatever motive may have governed the cowardly and malignant tyrant,” he writes, “it is of no importance.” It doesn’t matter why Northup was strung up in a tree like a dead deer in the summer sun, bathed in sweat, with little water to drink. What matters is what has often been missing among the economic, social and cultural explanations of American slavery and in many of its representations: human suffering. “My wrists and ankles, and the cords of my legs and arms began to swell, burying the rope that bound them into the swollen flesh.” Part of the significance of Northup’s memoir is its description of everyday life. Mr. McQueen recreates, with texture and sweep, scenes of slavery’s extreme privations and cruelties, but also its work rhythms and routines, sunup to sundown, along with the unsettling intimacies it produced among the owners and the owned. In Louisiana, Solomon is sold by a brutish trader (Paul Giamatti) to an outwardly decent plantation owner, William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch), who, in turn, sells him to a madman and drunk, Edwin Epps (Mr. Fassbender).

In his memoir, Northup refers to Ford charitably, doubtless for the benefit of the white readers who were the target of his abolitionist appeal. Freed from that burden, the filmmakers can instead show the hypocrisies of such paternalism. It’s on Epps’s plantation that “12 Years a Slave” deepens, and then hardens. It’s also where the existential reality of what it meant to be enslaved, hour after hour, decade after decade, generation after generation, is laid bare, at times on the flayed backs of Epps’s human property, including that of his brutalized favorite, Patsey (Lupita Nyong’o). Mr. Fassbender, skittish and weirdly spiderlike, grabs your attention with curdled intensity. He’s so arresting that at first it seems as if the performance will soon slip out of Mr. McQueen’s control, and that the character will become just another irresistibly watchable, flamboyant heavy. Movie villainy is so easy, partly because it allows actors to showboat, but also because a lot of filmmakers can’t resist siding with power. Mr. McQueen’s sympathies are as unqualified as his control.

There is much to admire about “12 Years a Slave,” including the cleareyed, unsentimental quality of its images — this is a place where trees hang with beautiful moss and black bodies — and how Mr. Ejiofor’s restrained, open, translucent performance works as a ballast, something to cling onto, especially during the frenzies of violence. These are rightly hard to watch and bring to mind the startling moment in “Maus,” Art Spiegelman’s cartoon opus about the Holocaust, in which he asks his “shrink” to explain what it felt like to be in Auschwitz. “Boo! It felt like that. But ALWAYS!” The genius of “12 Years a Slave” is its insistence on banal evil, and on terror, that seeped into souls, bound bodies and reaped an enduring, terrible price. “12 Years a Slave” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Slave-trade violence.

12 Years a Slave Stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Kenneth Williams, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Sarah Paulson Rating R 12 Years a Slave Trailer 2013 Brad Pitt Movie - Official [HD] - YouTube 12 Years a Slave Trailer 2013 Brad Pitt Movie - Official [HD] Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jul 18, 2013 12 Years a Slave trailer 2013 - Official movie trailer in HD 1080p - starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt, Paul Dano - directed by Steve McQueen - based on an incredible true story of one man's fight for survival and freedom. "12 Years a Slave" movie theatrical release on October 18, 2013.

In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty (personified by a malevolent slave owner, portrayed by Michael Fassbender) as well as unexpected kindnesses, Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon's chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist (Brad Pitt) forever alters his life. 12 Years a Slave movie trailer 2013 is presented in full HD 1080p high resolution. 12 YEARS A SLAVE 2013 Movie Genre: Drama 4 out of 5 stars Time Out says 5 out of 5 stars It starts in a field, as a group of men—all black—are huddled too-close together, looking as if the frame itself is going to crush them. They toil away, cutting down swathes of sugarcane; later, dinner is consumed in silence, and amid what seems to be 20, maybe 30 people practically sleeping on top of each other, a man named Platt lies on the floor.

He shares a quick, unsolicited moment with a woman next to him, and afterward, you can see shame and confusion play across his face. Even a furtive stab at intimacy in this environment translates as deadening and abusive. His soul seems to be leaking out of his body before our very eyes. Within five minutes of his adaptation of Solomon Northup’s 1853 memoir, British filmmaker Steve McQueen has already put viewers on alert: This is what slavery, that peculiar institution that started a civil war and will forever compromise our nation’s moral integrity, looks like. The images may be pretty at times—a visual artist before he was a director, McQueen isn’t afraid to fixate on the way that blackberry juice runs across the lip of a dull tin plate, or how the dying embers of a burning letter fade into darkness. But this story of Northup, a cultured and free black New Yorker who was drugged by carnies, kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841.…His tale will not be pretty at all.

You will see how Northup, played with extraordinary precision and grace by English actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, is beaten with planks and whips, his shirt reduced to—as one character says in a singsong voice—“rags and tatters, rags and tatters.” You will see him lose his identity (“You are now called Platt,” he is told, a declaration punctuated by a slap across the face) as he and his fellow travelers are stripped naked and sold by an auctioneer (Paul Giamatti) as if they were livestock (“He’ll grow up to be a fine beast”). You’ll see children separated from their mothers, how a “nice” master (Benedict Cumberbatch) is still a master nonetheless, and how other slaves must go about their business while one of their own hangs from a rope, his toes brushing the ground just enough to keep him alive. You’ll think that Platt/Northup is well on his way to being systematically broken, and then you’ll meet Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender), our hero’s new “owner.” And you’ll realize you’ve really seen nothing yet.

Systematically is the key word here, and not just because Ejiofor’s character must endure methodical round-robins of pain and humiliation. Though McQueen continues to work his themes of suffering and spiritual transcendence (his debut, 2008’s Hunger, dealt with activist Bobby Sands starving himself to death in prison; 2011’s Shame looked at a sex addict’s attempt to kick the habit), this unflinching, unforgiving drama is not about a slave, but about slavery itself. Northup plays the violin and is considered a pillar of society when he’s a Yankee—but when he becomes part of the machinations of slavery, none of that truly matters; even his musical prowess, which wins him small favors, gets him no closer to freedom. He is simply another black man enslaved. His ordeal is nightmarish, yet it was not an uncommon one—and that is what is truly horrific. Beatings, abuse, rape—and being complicit in perpetrating those things on others—were a matter of course, and the power that one race held over another ended up tainting and corrupting all parties.

If 12 Years a Slave underlines nothing else, it’s that this system destroyed everyone’s humanity, from the hand that wielded the whip to the back that was scarred by it. One side of that equation did suffer a dehumanization far greater than the other, of course, and regardless of what most folks may have read about the horrors of slavery, it is another thing entirely to see them presented in such a visceral manner. In watching the film’s physical and psychic violence unfold across the screen, however, you never sense that McQueen is trying to show off his filmmaking virtuosity or use these realistically re-created historical horrors to, say, add an edginess to a pseudo-cool pomo exploitation film (no names mentioned). Instead, there’s a sense of honoring what so many Americans were forced to go through during a very, very dark period in our history, of trying to make a modern audience feel the weight and burden of an ancestral experience. In one of those odd confluences of timing, McQueen’s movie opens after two other films this year—Fruitvale Station and Lee Daniels’ The Butler—that examine race in America from numerous angles, measuring strides taken and distances to be covered.

Here, we are shown the beginning of that journey, and bear witness to the hurt acquired along the way. There’s a moment near the end of 12 Years a Slave where Ejiofor glances away from the horizon and directly into the camera; the look in his eyes conveys a legacy of anguish and several generations’ will to survive. More than a century has passed since the events depicted onscreen. Yet in that second, as you sift through your own feelings of sorrow and rage, the movie does not feel like it’s about the past at all. Follow David Fear on Twitter: @davidlfear By: David Fear 4 out of 5 stars Average User Rating 12 Years a Slave Christian Movie Review There are two regular weekly services: Early Sunday Morning: 9:00 am. This service is very personal, contemplative and devotional. Sunday School begins upstairs in the 9am service with a message for the Children and then continues downstairs during the rest of the service. Sunday Morning: 11:00 am. 9 and 11am services follow the same format. For all services there is a fully functional nursery for young children, All worship services are held in the sanctuary.

Holy Communion is celebrated on the second, fourth and fifth Sundays of the month at both services on those days. There are two additional monthly services: Evening Prayer Services: 7:30 pm, with Holy Communion offered each month on the first Wednesday. Morning Prayer Services: 8:00 am, with Holy Communion offered each month on the third Wednesday. Runtime: 134 min Rated 14A (Canada), Rated R (MPAA) for violence/cruelty, some nudity and brief sexuality Based on Solomon Northup’s 1853 book, co-authored with David Wilson, 12 Years a Slave recounts the story of Northup, a man kidnapped, sold into slavery, who lives as a slave and is eventually redeemed from slavery. This is a difficult movie to watch, not just because of the brutal violence but also its depiction of Northup's loss of freedom and dignity. Before seeing this film viewers may want to ask themselves why they watch movies. If it’s for entertainment, it would be hard to recommend this film. If it’s to be provoked to think, to investigate, to consider, then perhaps this film merits viewing.

12 Years a Slave has more in common with Steven Spielberg's historical drama Schindler's List than with last year's bio-pick Rush by Ron Howard . While director Steve McQueen, like Spielberg, leaves his own directorial fingerprints on the history he is portraying, both he and Spielberg share the honest desire to tackle painful and challenging chapters in history. Although previous films and TV programs had dealt with the Jewish Holocaust of World War II, Spielberg still made Schindler's List. Likewise, the plight of Africans in the 19th century slave trade of the American South had been dealt with before, yet McQueen made 12 Years a Slave. For years, many have considered the television mini-series Roots the definitive investigation of slavery in the antebellum south. Over the years a general investigation of this history has given way to stories grounded in specific events. For instance Spielberg made the 1997 film Amistad about a 1839 mutiny aboard a slave ship and the subsequent court case. 12 Years a Slave is similarly grounded in real-world events and populated with characterizations of historical individuals.

Chiwetel Ejiofo, who plays Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave, had a supporting role in Spielberg's Amistad but this time he is the centre of the unfolding story. What makes 12 Years a Slave particularly unique and compelling is its autobiographical nature. In an interview with NPR, McQueen explained his reasons for making the film, "I had the idea of having a free man from the North ... who gets kidnapped and pulled into the maze of slavery. I liked the idea that the audience follows this person in every step that he takes within the context of slavery. .. [My wife] found this book called 12 Years a Slave, and I read this book, and I was totally stunned. It was like a bolt coming out of the sky; at the same time I was pretty upset with myself that I didn't know this book. ... Slowly but surely I realized that most people, in fact all the people I knew did not know this book. I live in Amsterdam where Anne Frank is a national hero.

She's not just a national hero, she's a world hero, and for me this book read like Anne Frank's diary but written 97 years before — a firsthand account of slavery." [1] Christians watching 12 Years a Slave will be confronted with a complex depiction their faith. Some people in the film are shown holding fast to their faith even in the midst of their trouble. We see this at the grave side of a fellow slave when a group of slaves sing spontaneously a heartfelt rendition of the spiritual “Roll, Jordan, Roll.” On the other hand Christian viewers will be confronted with the slave owner, Mr. Epp (Michael Fassbender), quoting Luke 12:47 to his slaves: “And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.” This is followed with a rather crude exposition of the Scriptural text as to what, in his opinion, "many stripes" means. This 'explanation' is then topped off with Epp shutting his Bible and saying, “That’s scripture.” Epp, among others, is then shown beating his slaves.

These beatings add to film’s horror and raise the bar on the level of violence. The film depicts God's Word as being both a source of comfort in the face of trouble and the self-justifying document excusing and/or promoting the slave trade and the brutal mistreatment of slaves. For this reason the viewer of 12 Years a Slave needs to be aware that the film is intending to create a dialogue between these two interpretations of slavery as found in Scripture. Further to that these approaches need not be accepted on face value by the viewer. In fact a careful investigation of Scripture on a whole as related to this topic is recommended. Many film reviewers approached the violence inherent in the telling of this story in a peculiar way. A well-researched article by Mollie Hemingway in the Federalist details how "[12 Years a Slave] reminded [Hemingway] of [her] response to The Passion of the Christ, the visceral 2004 film about the suffering and death of Jesus." She continues saying, "Both films are very good. Both films are depictions of real people in history.

Both films are full not just of violence but violence that must be depicted because it serves the central point." Hemingway's article then compares and contrasts a number of reviewers who had reviewed both The Passion of The Christ and 12 Years a Slave. Over and over again the same reviewers decry the violence in Mel Gibson's The Passion of The Christ while excusing or downplaying the violence of 12 Years a Slave. The article asks the question, "Did critics evolve or did something else happen?" [2] Could there be a double standard at play? Solomon Northup is not a stand-in for Jesus Christ no matter how many stripes he receives. While he comes across as a righteous character in some of his convictions, he is a failure in other areas of life. While he has noble intentions to remain unbroken, to avoid falling into despair, and while he clearly states that he doesn't just want to survive he wants to live, these intentions lead him to compromise his morals. Jesus at the cross was willingly pierced and crushed for the sins of others [3] while Northup quickly works to find ways to keep away from the violence perpetrated against him.

Northup isn't shown willingly receiving chastisement for his own actions or for the actions of others like the reader of Scripture sees Jesus doing in His death. [4] Christians will not be able to draw a direct parallel between Northup and Jesus. The Jesus of Scripture is without sin; Northup in 12 Years a Slave has sins. Northup lies to Mr. Epp to save his life when he is almost caught trying to send a letter he wrote on stolen paper and he often fails to help and support his neighbour's physical needs consistently. Northup is not alone in his disregard for the physical needs of his neighbour. There is a disturbing scene at the house of a Mr. Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch - Star Trek Into Darkness , The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug ), Northup’s previous owner, where Northup is lynched by an unhappy overseer. This overseer and his accomplices are sent running away by Mr. Ford’s chief overseer, but he doesn’t cut Northup down, leaving him standing on the tips of his toes. All day Northup stands there in danger of slipping and breaking his neck.

One woman slave brings him a drink of water but the others go about their routine as if Northup is invisible. Children play, slaves walk by, yet no one raises a finger. [5] It’s a very distressing scene. Christians may be reminded of the crucifixion but it's good to remember that Northup is not Jesus and his suffering saves no one of their sins. In fact, Northup's suffering doesn't even save him; his life after that terrible event actually gets worse as he's handed over to Mr. Epp. However, Northup does display many moments of virtue; he refuses to assist a fellow slave in committing suicide and occasionally steps in to help others. Still, he is most concerned for himself and his desire to return to his freedom and his family. Here the complexity of Northup's character begins to become clear. This complexity is further developed because viewers are asked to focus on these virtuous moments while excusing the moments where Northup acts badly because of the circumstances of slavery in which he is found. This is relativism. Why is this important? When a character is presented as a hero, Christians need to ask themselves whether the character displays actual heroic virtues.

Then the Christians need to ask are these heroic virtues actual Christian in nature? Due to Northup’s predicament, the autobiographical nature of the source material, and the way in which the story is filmed viewers are left with the question: What would I do under those circumstances? 12 Years a Slave may seem a safe place to ask this question since at the end, when the lights go up, viewers go home: Albeit with an uneasy feeling. The viewer retains their freedom as the leave the theatre what they may be left with is questions. There is no simple answer to the question 'What would I do under those circumstances?' In fact, this can easily be a very real question today as society still deals with human trafficking. In North America it's easy to see this as a historical drama disassociated from our day-to-day lives. Yet each day people wake up to find themselves kidnapped, separated from their families, with no chance of freeing themselves. The larger question posed by the film is the question of identity. Northup, at the point of being abducted, was faced with questions concerning his personal identity. He says to one of his abductors, "I am Solomon Northup.

I am a free man; a resident of Saratoga, New York. The residence also of my wife and children who are equally free. I have papers. You have no right whatsoever to detain me" His kidnapper says, "Yah no free man. And yah ain't from Saratoga. Yah from Georgia. Yah ain't a free man. Yah nuthin' but a Georgia runaway."While being transported he's given some advice by another kidnapped man: "If you want to survive, do and say as little as possible. Tell no one who you really are and tell no one that you can read and write. Unless you want to be a dead ni**er." For Christians our identity is not wrapped up in civil freedom or even in our name; identity is wrapped up in our baptism into Christ Jesus and in the name of Jesus which is above all other names. [6] This is important because as much as 12 Years a Slave includes Scripture by way of quotations and public readings, it gets this concept wrong.

Northup’s identity is tied to his vocation as a musician, his civil liberties which were stripped away, his dignity which suffers, his personal name and to his family from which he was separated. Christian’s don’t need to have our identity tied up in these things (which isn't to say these things are not important; they are very important to our lives) but live with the reality that nothing—not even these things or the loss of them—"will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." [7] Steve McQueen has tackled a difficult topic in this film and 12 Years a Slave is not for every movie-goer. Christian viewers are warned that this movie is hard to watch and not without its theological problems. Lutheran viewers may have another important thing to think about. Lutherans are not averse to pointing out where individuals get Scripture wrong. Historical slavery in the United States is not analogous to slavery as it's depicted in Scripture and using Scripture to justify slavery as conducted by 19th century plantation owners is a twisting of Scripture. Christian viewers need to then be careful to remember that an incorrect view of Scripture is a narrative component of this film just as it was in that time period.

The best way to watch this film is as a historical drama and to avoid comparisons to modern issues outside the very real issue of human trafficking. 12 Years a Slave received seven Golden Globe nominations and won for Best Motion Picture–Drama. It is nominated for the Best Motion Picture of the Year Oscar along with eight other nominations. This film, like Schindler’s List, is poised to become one of those historical dramas enshrined into film history. For this reason it is worth viewing and then engaging in a lot of thinking, talking and study. Watch: ’12 Years a Slave’ Directed by ‘Shaft’ Director Gordon Parks | IndieWire Watch: ’12 Years a Slave’ Directed by ‘Shaft’ Director Gordon Parks Watch: '12 Years a Slave' Directed by 'Shaft' Director Gordon Parks Oct 25, 2013 3:08 pm Share This Article Talk Before it became an acclaimed feature film from Steve McQueen, the autobiography “Twelve Years a Slave” was the basis for an “American Playhouse” television movie for PBS directed by famed director Gordon Parks (“Shaft”).

Based on the same source material as the McQueen feature, the TV version, which aired in 1984, was known as “Solomon Northup’s Odyssey.” Avery Brooks plays the leading role of Northup, a free black man who was kidnapped in 1841 and sold into slavery. After first airing on PBS, the film was later released on video under the title “Half Slave, Half Free.” You can see a clip of the movie below or watch the whole thing by subscribing to Fandor . Lionsgate Vows to Recall Italy’s ’12 Years a Slave’ Poster Focusing on Brad Pitt | Variety Lionsgate Vows to Recall Italy’s ’12 Years a Slave’ Poster Focusing on Brad Pitt December 23, 2013 | 01:09PM PT White actors at the centerpiece of slave drama in country Calling the posters unauthorized, Lionsgate is vowing to recall the Italian marketing material for “ 12 Years a Slave ,” which puts the focus on Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender at the expense of star Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Italian distributor BIM is releasing the film in the region and worked with marketing company Fanatical About Cinema in making the posters, which have caused an uproar on the Internet. Execs at BIM could not be reached for comment. But a spokesman for Lionsgate, whose Summit label is handling the film overseas, said “The ’12 Years a Slave’ theatrical posters featuring Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender that were recently released in Italy were unauthorized and were not approved by any of the producers or licensors of the film. Summit Entertainment, acting as exclusive sales agent for the licensors, is investigating and taking immediate action to stop the distribution of any unauthorized posters and to have those posters currently in the marketplace recalled.” Pitt, who produced the film, has a minor role in “12 Years a Slave” but is one of the biggest stars in the world so the decision to promote him could easily be a financial one. However, it’s hard to overlook the implications of the fact that other materials in Italy favor another white actor in a supporting role, Fassbender, as opposed to Ejiofor, the black actor who appears in virtually every scene in the film.

Yesterday, the Tumblr blog “Carefree Black Girl” surfaced an Italian poster for the acclaimed Steve McQueen-directed drama, which prominently displays Brad Pitt’s face on top of a smaller image of a Ejiofor. “I’ve been following the press for months and I can’t wait to watch it but REALLY? I don’t remember Brad Pitt being the protagonist of the film or having such a pivotal role in the story to stay in the middle of the poster,” the blogger wrote. “I sure don’t know anything about marketing strategy to appeal audiences but isn’t this going too far?” “12 Years a Slave,” nominated for seven Golden Globes, tells the true story of Solomon Northup, a New York-born free black man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841. Fox Searchlight is distributing the film in the U.S. and Canada. Here’s the U.S. version of the poster:

Question: Who directed the 2013 film 12 Years a Slave?
Answer: Steve McQueen